The following audio recording
is from a 1947 nationwide radio broadcast
for Ukrainian war refugees, presented by
the Mutual Radio Network.
DONNA GRESCOE
November
17, 1948
The violin Donna plays here is a $12;000
Cremona presented to her by the citizens
of Winnipeg Photo credit: C
& S Pictures for the Toronto Star
A highly talented violin
virtuoso, Donna Grescoe was born in
Winnipeg, Manitoba on November 17, 1927,
the daughter of Christina Antonina Roscoe
(1900-1995) and George Henry Grescoe
(1896-1971). She began playing the
violin at five years of age after her
parents bought a fiddle from a
door-to-door salesman, and studied under
the guidance of George Bornoff in
Winnipeg.
She gained early renown for her abilities
and at age 14 was described as a “genius”
by British pianist, composer, and Royal
College of Music professor Arthur
Benjamin, an adjudicator at the Manitoba
Musical Festival. Three years
earlier, as an 11-year-old, Donna won a
$5,000 scholarship to the American
Conservatory of Music in Chicago,
receiving instruction from the
Russian-trained concert pianist, Leopold
Mittman.
While in New York Donna performed on the
Major Bowes Amateur Hour, American radio’s
most popular talent show, and at the
Ukrainian American Festival, part of the
1939 New York World’s Fair.
In the fall of 1943, more than one year
after a benefit concert organized by the
publishers of the Winnipeg Evening Tribune
financed the creation of the Donna Grescoe
Educational Trust Fund, Donna resumed her
studies in New York City. This time
she spent four years (1943-1947) studying
with violinist Mischel Piastro, a
prominent concertmaster of the NBC
Symphony Orchestra.
Donna Grescoe toured across North America
making headlines in prestigious shows,
theatres, hotels, and night clubs.
Her professional career as a concert
violinist was launched on October 1, 1946
before a sold-out house of 4,500 at the
Winnipeg Civic Auditorium. Her New
York City debut at Town Hall on February
3, 1947 was attended by representatives of
Winnipeg’s political and business
elite. A year later, on January 30,
1948, Donna performed at Carnegie Hall.
She would go on a concert tour of Canada
in 1948-49, and during her early career
performed with renowned groups such as the
Toronto and Montreal Symphony
Orchestras. Despite her early
success, however, she received few
opportunities to perform on stage in
concert. Refusing to remain idle, in
1953 she began to perform at nightclubs.
Donna would later play at the Canadian
National Exhibition and on television,
including "Toast of the Town" hosted by Ed
Sullivan in 1955. She married Bjorn
Guillichsen later that same year and gave
her last solo performance in 1959.
After her concert career, Donna returned
to Winnipeg and performed with the
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from
1974-1979. She was a founding member
of the Manitoba Conservatory of Music
& Arts and became one of its
teachers. Donna commissioned
fourteen classical musical
compositions. In 1988, she retired
from teaching and married again, this time
to cellist Charles Dojack.
Her classical music composition “The
Flight of Aphrodite” has been incorporated
into the ballet “Cinderella: Frozen in
Time.” Canadian writer Lyn Cook
recounts Grescoe's childhood in Winnipeg
in her 1951 book “The Little Magic
Fiddler.”
Donna Grescoe died in Richmond, British
Columbia on August 17, 2012.